The number of options a a student gets to engage in University at Buffalo (UB) is great. The REALM Experience is one such. REALM stands for Real Experience and Leadership Mentoring. This involves application for the program through office of student engagement, student union. The process takes one to the interview process and then the candidate has to attend the information session for the target REALM program – NYC or Buffalo (2016 offering). Then we attend the awesome workshops recommended by the office of student engagement and conducted by career services. This helps one to prepare for the range of possibilities for the one day REALM program. These workshops are beneficial for intern and job search too.
The preparations lead one to attend the actual event . Here, we start to appreciate the gravity of organizing the event that starts with networking breakfast. As the day begins to dawn us, we will be in the target office already with our assigned mentor. Hence, the information session on the day is very useful. This gives practical tips for the day. I personally spend the day at Baxter with a group of students who were each assigned a mentor just as me. The plant tour and process information is for everyone to learn. Introduction of their day to day activities and the way of work at the company is one to keep learning from, if you are not used to the working system of such great companies. Sessions with a group including other mentors helps to network with different professionals attending to varied nature of their jobs. This also helps to have a more comprehensive perspective of the job roles and how the mentors work with each other as as team for the goal of the project of the company. The good thing about the mentors is that they can always relate to the student life and the gradually trace their professional path and give valuable suggestions and opinions based on this. The exposure to the internal working structure and history of products, projects and research is really great. This saves a lot of time if you were planning to do a research about the company prior to the company, because this one day is like many internet searches put together, in addition, having a face and sound for the people involved, the vision of the company and evolution and development of their team and products and also the impact they have on the market.
The day does not end the shift workers clock their time out or the regular employees start their car for home. We meet mentors and students of the REALM program from different companies at the networking dinner held at the American Red Cross building. The building has a history of its own. And there is a building tour conducted by the American Red Cross. That is a different , add-on, experience on its own. All this time, the networking event continues with food and soda so we can meet professionals and other student participants and know more about their day.
And finally for the photos on the way (not people) click here >
Life is just colorful and to see the colors of professional life networking events like this takes you a long way.
If you are a student looking for a networking opportunity with a professional touch. This is a must go event. It is sure to be a very informative day at the very least.
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